This is a hard book to review. First of all it isn’t an official book. Steven Brust wrote a fan fiction piece based on Joss Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity universe. My guess, based on the fact that it is a finished book and not sold, is that it was written to be sold, but Joss didn’t buy it, so there wasn’t anything that could be done with it other than give it away.
Fan fiction and other free works like this are exactly what ereaders can excel at. This would not have made a ripple if people could only read it on their computer screen. There was a Twilight novel that also was not finished and released that I am sure many ereader/kindle owners read.
I am a big fan of Firefly/Serinity universe. I didn’t know a thing about it until the movie Serenity came out. But once I found out about it, my wife bought me the complete series DVD for my birthday (the only complete series DVD that we own.) We also have the Serenity Movie and I would gladly buy more if there were more to buy. So yes, I am a big fan.
Now to the book itself. This short novel (about 170 pages) is set between the movie and the TV show. I honestly read about 15 percent of the book before I was sure it wasn’t just a novelization of the movie/tv show. That says a little about the author’s lack of effort at differentiating from the TV/movie. On the other hand, his characterization was excellent. I felt he understood the characters as well, and maybe even better than Joss Whedon. This book spent a fair amount of time inside the heads of the characters. And he did a great job understanding motivation, especially with River.
I would like to see more. If you want a copy of this book go to the author’s website for a free copy.
nice, I saw one or two episodes as well as the Film, very enjoyable. Downloading the novel, but I gotta say I find it hard reading digital versions of books – something about the physical nature of the brick and motor publications. Maybe the iPad will change that?